Ms. Emi Maccoll, an official from the World Tourism Organization, made this remark at the World Tourism Day event recently held in Yinchuan, the capital city of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China.

She also said that in the past ten years, continuous and rapid development of Chinese tourism surpassed all expectations. In 2002, the number of foreign tourists to visit China far exceeded the rest of Asia.

Statistics reveal that in 2001 Chinese foreign exchange income generated by tourism reached US$17.8 billion, an increase of 9.7 percent year-on-year, leapfrogging the country to 5th position in the world, behind only America, Spain, France and Italy. Meanwhile, China generated 352.24 billion yuan (US$42.57 billion) in domestic tourism revenue, 10.9 percent higher than the previous year.

“Over the last twenty years, China has developed itself into an Asian tourism power. It is the only country in the world that witnessed double-digit growth in both tourist numbers and tourism revenue,” said Gu Zhaoxi, vice-president of the National Tourism Administration. Based on this developing momentum, China should become the largest tourist destination in the world by 2020.”

To achieve this goal, China will further lower the threshold for private capital and foreign capital entering the tourism service industry.

China is currently reforming its regulations to encourage private business to enter the tourism market and stimulate foreign capital to enter the Chinese tourism service industry by either buying stock or establishing sole proprietorships. In the future, China will also gradually lift the regional limit for foreign capital entering the Chinese travel agency market. In line with the international tourism practice, China will deepen structural reforms of the tourism industry, improve tourism management and systems of trade management and promote quality tourism services.

(china.org.cn by Zhao Meng, October 22, 2002)